Review and giveaway (worldwide): The French Market Cookbook by Clotilde Dusoulier

I’ve been a huge fan of Clotilde Dusoulier, author of Chocolate & Zucchini, for many years now. Even before I had my own blog, I read Clotilde. I own and love Clotilde’s Edible Adventures in Paris and Chocolate & Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen and I was thrilled to meet her when she was in Toronto a few years ago talking about the art of food blogging. When I heard Clotilde was releasing a new book at the beginning of the summer featuring vegetarian recipes from her Parisian kitchen and organised according to the seasons (each chapter includes a sort of “heads up” about the produce that is available during that season), I knew I needed a copy. Forget guide books, all I needed to guide me through the fabulous produce of Paris and Languedoc markets was The French Market Kitchen Cookbook! (You can get a sneak peek here).

Over the past few years, Clotilde explains that she has transitioned to a more plant-based way of eating (for reasons of ethics, environmental concern, and natural inclination) and she has developed vegetarian recipes using her weekly produce that she shares in this new book, which features 90 seasonal recipes (many of them vegan) and 75 color photographs (I love the photos – when I am cooking and baking I need some sort of visual guideline to help me). Clotlide says : “My goal, in this book as on the blog, is to teach and inspire, so each of the recipes is meant to leave you not just with a wonderful dish to share with your friends, but also with a trick, a technique, a building block that you can adopt and use elsewhere in your cooking.”

Green bean red rice and almond salad from The French Market Cookbook

A book that offers “building blocks” you can build on and adapt? Sounds right up my alley since I am, you know the queen of adapting recipes! The fact that this cookbook is organised according to the seasons is a stroke of genius especially if you are trying to eat seasonally. How often do you look through a cookbook, find a tasty looking recipe and then realise that one of the major ingredients is out of season? Well worry no more because all you have to do is consult the seasonal chapter that applies to find something you can easily find ingredients for.

Tomato mustard tart from The French Market Cookbook

When I am away from home, I tend to cook and bake a lot. This past summer I made sure to invite friends over to my tiny Paris flat often so that I could try out Clotilde’s “French Market” recipes (it’s easier to cook for more than one person!). Every recipe that I made was a success. Simple ingredients and easy-to-follow recipes make for dishes I’ll make again and again. The green bean, red rice and almond salad found its way to my table at least 6 times in 7 weeks. It’s that good!

Stuffed vegetables with beans and barley from The French Market Cookbook

One of the recipes I was most excited to try was the ratatouille tian – you know, the fancy presentation you might have seen in Ratatouille the movie! Instead of chopping and stewing the vegetables, they are sliced paper-thin, artfully arranged and baked in the oven. My first attempt was not so artful…

… but boy, was it tasty! I’ve made ratatouille a few times since coming home in August and I make it this way every time now. I’m getting better at the “artful” part too!

The revelation of the book, however, was this zucchini and apricot socca tart. Basically a apricote compote spread over socca and topped with thinly sliced zucchini (raw). It’s definitely not a combination I would have thought of but it really works. Leftovers heat up well in a skillet too!

And of course, what’s summer without a summer fruit clafoutis? Specifically, a peach and almond clafoutis like this one.

Peach and almond clafoutis from The French Market Cookbook

My battered, splattered copy of The French Market Cookbook is testament to how often it’s been used despite its short life and the fact that I have made every recipe I have tried from the book more than once tells me this is a cookbook that will join Dorie’s Around My French Table as a “go to” book to consult when I need ideas or those “building blocks” she speaks about. Highly recommended for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians and definitely a great starting point towards eating more seasonally.

Win a copy of Clotilde Dusoulier’s The French Market Cookbook (worldwide)!

That’s right – thanks to the kind folks at Random House Canada, I have a copy of The French Market Cookbook up for grabs. If the winner resides outside Canada, I will pay the extra cost for shipping so it’s open to anyone, anywhere!

To enter:

1. Leave a comment below telling me which one of the recipes featured in this post would you like to try and why?

2. For a bonus entry, tweet the following message:

I entered to win The French Market Cookbook by @clotildenet from @eatlivtravwrite + @RandomHouseCA http://bit.ly/19FO8qz

Then come back to leave me a comment telling me you did.

Edited to add: Contest CLOSED

Contest closes on Wednesday September 25th at 6pm EST. Winner will be chosen by random.org and will be notified by email on September 26th 2013.

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Disclosure: Random House Canada provided me with a review copy of The French Market Cookbook. I was not required to post about this, nor am I being compensated for doing so. All opinions are my own.

106 Responses to Review and giveaway (worldwide): The French Market Cookbook by Clotilde Dusoulier

I have Clotilde’s first book, Chocolate & Zucchini. Not only does it have great recipes, the stories are fascinating to read. I like a recipe with stories.

Which one of the above? Well, that’s a hard choice, but I always go for tomatoes, so it’s the tomato tart for me. We all need to eat a more vegetable based diet and think seasonally about our food choices.

So I’m off now to have a peek inside her new French Market book. If I had to choose a country for food, hands down it would be France. Sounds like another cookbook book will be going on my wish list alonside all of the other French books…
Sam

I’d have to go for the ratatouille recipe. Ever since I first saw the movie (which was partly responsible for my passion for food), I’ve wanted to recreate that beautiful ratatouille. My first couple of attempts were, well, not as artistic, but I’m sure with Clothilde’s instructions, success is just around the corner!

I would love to try the green bean red rice almond salad from The French Market Cookbook. I joined a farmers coop this summer and receive weekly organic food baskets. I would love to discover new and exciting recipes using seasonal veggies. Your endorsement of Clotilde Dusoulier’s most recent cookbook has me believe that I will certainly enhance my recipe repertoire with this book.

You know I subscribed to Chocolate & Zucchini a long time ago. Now I’m going to have to look and see why I haven’t been getting their emails. This book looks fantastic. I love preparing dishes straight from the market and the photos you’ve shared are beautiful and inviting.

I’m going to try the ratatouille tian that you posted, I love dishes like that. Then I’ll have to try the stuffed vegetables with beans and barley.

Now I need to read more about it on Amazon and their other book along with figuring out why I haven’t been getting their posts as they happen.

What a great giveaway! I love Clotidle’s site and, like you, have been reading since long before I had my own blog. i love her simple, unadorned way of approaching food and cooking. Can’t wait to get my hands on this book!

I think many bloggers have been inspired by her blog, even before we started ours, just like you. How fab you met her. Everything looks so good but I have to say the before and after ratatouille pic is amazing, I would choose that one for it’s classic French taste and it reminds me of a salad Niçoise.

I’d like to make the courgette tart. My mum is vegan and I like to make interesting recipes for her. My dad was a big fan of apricots and apricot jam when we went on holiday to France so this recipe would also remind us of him which would be doubly good.

I am really intrigued by the zucchini and apricot socca tart, this recipe is quite unusual, so I would definitely try it ! And I’m french, so I know all about clafoutis and tians…
I really like Clotilde Dusoulier too, her recipes are all healthy AND tasty !
Thanks for the giveaway

I would love to try the Zucchini & Apricot Socca Tart. What a unique combination of ingredients! Definitely needs to be made in my kitchen soon. I would love love love to win a copy of this a bulbous cookbook! Thanks for the great giveaway!

I would love to try the zucchini and apricot socca tart recipe. The picture is so pretty – makes me think of a healthy pizza! It sounds really good and I think it would be great way to get my son to eat his zucchini.

peach and almond clafoutis looks divine! I am due any any day with my first baby and would love an inspiring cook book to help me feel more confident in the kitchen as a wife and new momma. fingers crossed!

Hi Mardi – I’d love to try the tomato and mustard tart from Clotilde’s cookbook. The photo you have here looks so good & I’ve been getting more and more interested in galettes and non-dessert tarts. There’s something so comforting about how the filling is just folded up in the crust like the tart above and in galettes — so easy yet refined-looking!

I hope I win this contest, I think I would immediately cook my way through every since recipe, that’s how much I’m looking forward to reading it!

The stuffed veggies w/beans and barley stole my heart — they are so cute! I’ll return w/my tweet, will be from my new venture “ripefoodandwine”. Thanks for hosting the giveaway — I’ve been a fan of Clothilde and C&Z from the beginning!